Earl Wood

In 1962, Wood was the tenth scientist to be named "Career Investigator," of the American Heart Association. These funds allowed Wood considerable flexibility in regards to the directions of his research.

All of Earl Wood's siblings grew up to be highly accomplished. Louise A. Wood was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Truman for her services as over-seas director of the American Red Cross during World War II. and became the executive director of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 1961 to 1972. Harland G. Wood was the first director of the Department of Biochemistry at the School of Medicine and Dean of Sciences, Case Western Reserve University. As a biochemist, he was notable for proving in 1935 that animals, humans and bacteria utilized carbon dioxide and received the National Medal of Science. Chester was a teacher and a university administrator; Delbert was, in succession, a lawyer, a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, and a railway executive; Abe was an internist and founder of a Colorado-based medical clinic. Not surprisingly, in 1950, Earl Wood's mother, Inez, was awarded the title of "Minnesota Mother of the Year." Earl and his wife, Ada, had a daughter, Phoebe and three sons, Mark, Guy and E. Andrew.

Wood himself regularly tested the flight suits, taking many turns in a human centrifuge and plane dubbed the "G-wiz." He calculated that during more than a thousand rides, he had lost consciousness for an aggregate of at least fifteen minutes (without any observed lasting damage). Wood was awarded a Presidential Certificate of Merit by Harry Truman in 1947.

Shortly after receiving an M.D. and PhD in physiology from the University of Minnesota medical school under the mentorship of Professor Maurice B. Visscher, MD, Wood became a key member of a team, working in a laboratory at the Mayo Clinic, tasked with helping military pilots and flight crew survive and function in high G-force environments. Based upon extensive physiologic testing via use of the human centrifuge installed at the Mayo Clinic, it was determined that blackout and then unconsciousness was caused by reduction of blood flow to the eyes first and then the brain. The solutions the team arrived at were the M-1 breath hold maneuver and the G-suit. The M-1 maneuver consisted of a strained exhalation effort against a closed glottis designed to increase left ventricular pressure. (Although the references given are dated 1946-7, the work was performed much before then. In, see the acknowledgments section explaining the closed nature of the research with restrictions placed on publication during the war. During the war effort the Mayo Clinic laboratory was operating with government Confidential secrecy.) The G suit was a garment, produced by the David Clark Company, which has air bladders situated at the calves, thighs, and abdomen of the wearer. The bladders inflate as the G-force acting on the aircraft increase, constricting the wearer's arteries, hence increasing blood pressure and blood flow to the brain.

The G-suit was adopted in the 1940s. The current models are based on the pattern Wood and his colleagues designed. Following World War II, Wood was recruited to participate in what was known as "Operation Paperclip" The goal was to keep the top German scientists away from Russia and working for the United States.

Earl Howard Wood (January 1, 1912 – March 18, 2009) was an American cardiopulmonary physiologist who helped invent the G-suit, brought heart catheterization into a clinical reality and introduced dynamic volumetric computed tomography for the study of the heart and lungs.

Earl Wood was born to Inez Goff and William Clark Wood in Mankato, Minnesota on January 1, 1912 and started life on a subsistence farm. William Wood, in addition to farming, was a real estate businessman. Earl Wood earned a B.A. in Mathematics and Chemistry from Macalester College in 1934, and his MD degree and a PhD degree in physiology from the University of Minnesota. Earl was one of 5 brothers (Earl, Chester, Delbert, Harland and Abe) and a sister, Louise.